Photojournalist Stages News for Profit and Ideology

Fadi Arouri is one of Ramallah’s biggest opponents of normalizing Israeli-Palestinian ties. He’s also a photographer who isn’t interested in separating his professional journalism and political activism.

And that raises questions about his association with the Reuters wire service and China’s Xinhua News Agency. HonestReporting has learned Reuters fired Arouri, apparently over his extra-curricular activities, but the wire service continues to use his work on a free lance basis.

Freedom of movement for journalists is certainly reasonable — but coming from this crowd, it’s a difficult argument to hear. The same journalists opposed to normalization are demanding Israeli travel permits and Israeli press credentials so they can work inside Israel, and interview the same Israelis they refuse to even let their kids play soccer with.

HonestReporting has learned that Fadi Arouri’s activities in the anti-normalization campaign go beyond legitimate activism, and have crossed over into his professional work. He works for Xinhua and has a free lance relationship with Reuters. He photography has appeared in AP, Apollo Images, Maan News, and Al-Ayyam.

One Palestinian journalist discussed Arouri with HonestReporting on condition of anonymity because he didn’t want his criticisms to be construed as personal. He described several troubling incidents the photographer was directly involved in:

1. On July 17, “Arouri and his friends organized a march of Palestinian journalists to the Qalandiya checkpoint, where they staged a confrontation with Israeli soldiers,” HonestReporting was told.

“They shouted at the soldiers so they could sell the photos. Looking at the photos, its looks like Arouri and his friends took turns confronting soldiers so they could photograph each other. That’s not a real protest. That’s a circus.”

And the International Federation of Journalists denounced the IDF for its “harsh restrictions” and “brutal behavior.” According to the IFJ, seven journos were injured. Here’s an example of one photo Arouri shot and posted on Facebook.

2. In May, 2012, “the US consulate organized an event in Ramallah for International Press Freedom Day, and Arouri led the campaign against the Americans,” HonestReporting was told. “He didn’t want Palestinians attending the event because it was arranged by the Americans. Arouri views America as the enemy. This has nothing to do with Israel. That event was covered by the international media. It was a case of journalists staging an event and then covering it.”

Indeed, the Fatah-affiliated Al Aqsa Press quoted Arouri as one of the protest organizers:

Fadi Arouri, one of the Palestinian journalists said, that the journalists agreed to stage a sit-in protest against the event organized by the US consulate. He noted that the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate, which represents all journalists of different political backgrounds, had called for boycotting the event in solidarity with the Palestinian prisoners.

Despite this hatred of the US, Arouri got a plum assignment later on. In March, 2013, the PA-run Palestinian Press Office selected Arouri to be the pool photographer shooting Secretary of State John Kerry’s visit to Ramallah. (To avoid unwieldy hordes of photographers at high-profile events, a pool photographer usually selected on a rotation basis covers the event and distributes his images world wide with no exclusivity.)

I got to admit, my favorite Pallywood lie was the Jenin hoax claim.
Remember after the Jenin massacre was proven to be a lie.
The Palestinians were going to cemetaries and digging up bodies and talking how they were killed in Jenin. The greatest example of Pallywood, was the Palestinians having fake funerals staged for the media to believe they were killed by Israel. Watch this video of a supposedly dead Palestinian the PLO said was killed in Jenin until the “corpse” falls off and magically regains consciousness. A definite contender for Best Pallywood Video of the Year Award.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pgQLGYb9Xfo

What a disgusting bunch of unsavory characters – no doubt cashing in nicely for their dishonest activities.
30 pieces of Silver in Judas’-currency traded against any budding Good-Will amongst his own people – and, no doubt – sanctimoniously declared as the Will of Allah.
Well…their tree is waiting too; if not in this Life – as it so often happens to real scumbags – then in the Here-after.

What a disgusting bunch of unsavory characters – no doubt cashing in nicely for their dishonest activities.
30 pieces of Silver in Judas’-currency traded against any budding Good-Will amongst his own people – and, no doubt – sanctimoniously declared as the Will of Allah.
Well…their tree is waiting too; if not in this Life – as it so often happens to real scumbags – then in the Here-after.

What a disgusting bunch of unsavory characters – no doubt cashing in nicely for their dishonest activities.
30 pieces of Silver in Judas’-currency traded against any budding Good-Will amongst his own people – and, no doubt – sanctimoniously declared as the Will of Allah.
Well…their tree is waiting too; if not in this Life – as it so often happens to real scumbags – then in the Here-after.